The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-12-31
NOTES ABOUT PEOPLE.

Nv LIZ IADOO LOl
-George Bancroft, the historian, is
said to regard the writing of $50 words
as good days work; Mr.. Blaine made
1900 his stint when writing his recollec-
tons and Admiral Porter dashes off
$500 as rapidly as a poet writing under
inspiration.
The authorship of the poem sIf 1
Should Die Tonight" attributed to Mr..
Beecher for years, has been traced to
Miss Belle e. Smith, former student,
and at present teacher in Tabor Col.
lege, at Tabor, Iowa. 1t first appeared in
the Christian Onion, June 18, 1873.
Mr.. L. A. Trollope recalls that his
maternal grandfather, country vicar,
could not endure the sound made by a
knife-edge on dinner plate. So he had
some plates made for himself with disks
of silver set in the centres, and on those he
cut his meat, without having his teeth
set on edge.
On the occasion OF his SEVENTEEN
birthday, Professor Mommsen received,
among other things, an address of con-
graduation signed by 418 learned ce.
lebrities in Germany, England, Austria,
Switzerland, Italy, Holland and America.
Accompanying this address was bust
of the septuagenarian historian.
1t is related that Prince Bismarck
was once asked for an autograph by a
young English girl, who professed extra
ordinary admiration for him, and wrote
that she would consider few lines from
him an omen of happiness for her future
life. He sent her the following: "Beware,
my child, OF building castles in the air
They are of all structures, the easiest to
erect and most difficult to demolish."
Sylvia Dubois, negress, who re-
sides in tumble-down hut at the base
of the Southland Mountain, near Fleming
ton, N. j., is reported to be over one
hundred and twenty-four years old. She
is clear-headed, can recite old-time rem
iniscences with considerable gusto, but
denies ever having nursed George Wash
ington or cooked for Napoleon. She is
living with her daughter, Elizabeth, who
Is eighty years OF age. Her appetite is
good, and she expects to live ten years
longer.
john ID. and William Rockefeller,
the old millionaires, favors short work.
ing hours, both for themselves and their
clerks. William is the more regular in
his attendance at his office. He arrives
there about 9 o'clock every morning, OK.
cept Saturday, and seldom leaves before
3 o'clock in the afternoon. With him
Saturday is always holiday. John d.
seldom appears before 1870 and is rarely
to be found in his Office after 8. Neither
cares the snap of his finger for society.
--Pundita Ramabai is Hindoo wo-
man OF high caste, who was educated by
her father, contrary to all precedent. She
was given degree by Pundits of Cal
cutta University, and has been professor
of Sanskrit in Cheltenham College,
England. The Pundita came to this coun-
try to raise funds to assist her in the work
to which she has resolved to devote her.
self, viz: the elevation of her sex in
her own country, most especially the
alienation of the woes of the unhappy
child-widows. She has travelled and lect-
ured in the West. She is the author of a
book, "The High Caste Hindoo Woman"
which has been extensively reviewed
and quoted by the public press.
The Rev. DR.. Scott, Dean of Roch-
ester, whose death at the age of seventy
SIX has been announced, was the partner
of Dean Liddel, of Christ Church, OK
ford, in the authorship of the great
Greek lexicon that bears their names. 1t
is told that the dignified and learned
gentlemen allowed themselves a joke
apiece in that monumental work. DIR.
SCOTS was this, that the derivation of
the word sycophant Tor rather its Greek
chronological equiyalenD from the ciS-
cumstance Of the informers who denounc-
ed the importation Of figs into Attica sis
a mere Pigment" DR.. Scott should have
been allowed another chance. That Joke
was not worth fig.
Walt Whitman, broken, palsied,
hopeless, plaintively means in the De-
cember Century thus:
TWILIGHT.
"The soft, yoluptuous opiate shades.
The sun just gone, the eager light dispelled
Il, too, will soon be gone, dispelled),
A haze-nirvaua-res and night-oblivion."
We prefer Frederick W. Faber:
"Rest comes at length though life be long
and dreary;